Patronised by Mme. du Barry, the dancer Marie Guimard, and other
priestesses of Venus, Fragonard now devoted his exceptionally facile
and spontaneous talent to subjects that in licentious frivolity,
voluptuousness, and suggestiveness had never been equalled even by his
master Boucher. It is only his marvellous technique, ranging from the
liquid transparency of his swift oil sketches to the rich luminous
impasto of the _Sleeping Bacchante_ (No. 294); from the elegant
arabesque of the _Bathing Women_ (No. 293), so full of _joie de vivre_
and youthful fire, to the almost brutal strength of the portrait of
a writer or poet, known under the title of _Inspiration_ (No. 298).
But in all these, as well as in the charming _Music Lesson_ (No. 291,
Plate XLII.), _The Student_ (No. 297) and the _Young Woman_ (No. 300),
Fragonard proves himself one of the greatest colourists produced by
the French School. It was Fragonard’s sad fate to outlive his fame, to
witness the collapse of the ancient régime and the triumph of his pupil
David’s classicism, and to die in obscurity and neglect.